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WILKES-BARRE — The city is looking to save money on workers’ compensation and spend more on engineering services for the Solomon Creek wall project.
City Administrator Ted Wampole discussed resolutions dealing with the financial issues at city council’s work session Tuesday night. Council is expected to vote on them during its regularly scheduled meeting starting at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.
Wampole said the city wants to enter into a three-year contract with Blue Bell-based PMA Management Corp. to act as third-party administrator for its self-insured workers’ compensation program. PMA was selected through a Request for Proposals process and offered to do the work for $30,000 a year plus a one-time $5,000 fee to cover transition costs from the existing provider, Excalibur Insurance Management Services of Dunmore.
Meanwhile, council also heard how a pump station to be built on Brook Street along the Solomon Creek wall and additional work arising from it are driving up engineering costs.
“We have enough money to do additional repairs,” Wampole assured council.
The city committed $4.5 million from a bond refinancing last year to rebuild sections of the Depression-era wall that has been damaged by storms and deteriorated from age and lack of maintenance. A combination of grants from the state, including $2.3 million in November, added another $4.6 million and moved the funding past the halfway point of the estimated $15 million needed for a comprehensive rebuild.
Borton-Lawson Engineering Inc., based in Plains Township, was hired last year at a cost of $266,500 for the wall project. Design and engineering services for the pump station will cost $245,000, according to one of two pending resolutions. The other adds $139,000 to Borton-Lawson’s original contract for the new work connected to the station.
Also this week, council will be asked to appoint Attilio “Butch” Frati, director of city operations, to a five-year term on the General Municipal Authority that oversees the Wilkes-Barre Municipal Golf Course in Bear Creek Township. Frati, a city resident, would replace Raymond Witczak, whose term expired at the end of last year.